Visit the Reader's Park outside of the Main Library this Friday, Park(ing) Day! Activities and fun all day long!

Perhaps you've already heard of Park(ing) Day, but just in case you haven't, the scoop is as follows:

PARK(ing) Day is an annual worldwide event where artists, designers and citizens transform metered parking spots into temporary public parks.

The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat … at least until the meter runs out!

So, what does this have to do with the Oakland Public Library? I'm so glad you asked! This year, for the first time ever, the Main Library will be participating in Park(ing) Day with a park of our own -

Oakland Public Library will be at East Bay Nerd Nite #11. You should be there too!

If there's one thing this librarian loves, it's a good nerd, so imagine my excitement when I learned there was an opportunity to partner with Nerd Nite East Bay. A dream come true! A whole night, once a month, for nerds that we, the Oakland Public Library, can be part of? Count me in!

So, you may be wondering what Nerd Nite is exactly. It is an event that takes place on the last Monday of each month at the New Parkway and includes three talks from three speakers on three diverse topics, each one, of course, interesting and engaging. Last month I attended as an audience member and loved it. This month, I'll attend as an interested audience member and in official librarian capacity repping OPL.

In order to increase the public's access to neighborhood library branches, OPL will be implementing a schedule change at the Brookfield, Eastmont, Golden Gate and Piedmont Avenue Branches.

As you may have heard by now, Oakland Public Library is changing the schedule at some of our locations beginning on Saturday, September 14th. You can read the press release about it here, which gives a lot of the background information. The short version is that we are implementing a schedule change at 4 of our branches, switching them to a Monday - Friday schedule in order to increase the public's access to neighborhood library branches.

Six Oakland Public Libraries are hosting National Night Out parties tonight. We hope to see you at some of them.

Tonight (8/6/13) is National Night Out and all over the country people will gather with neighbors to promote community. Just here in Oakland there will be over 100 block parties tonight, and 6 of them are taking place outside of Oakland Public Library branches! Stop by and say hi to your friendly library staff and your fellow library lovers. Turn your neighbors into friends!

The 81st Avenue Branch's party will be happening between 6 and 8:30pm and features food, fun and live music.

I have a confession to make. I've put off writing this first post for weeks because I haven't been able to come up with a good title for this blog. What is Community Relations? Well, I suppose it is an official sounding way to describe broadly what I do - which is to work, in any way imaginable, on connecting the library and the community we serve. What it isn't, though, is a fun and sassy name for a blog that the community might actually want to read.

This is going to be a great space where I can share all the different ways that we are working together. I have videos and photos to show you, and an abundance of stories to tell.

I'm going to give us some time to get to know this blog and then we're going to come up with a name for it, you and I. If something brilliant comes to you, keep it in mind and when I'm ready, I'll let you know. I'm thinking about a blog-naming contest in the next couple of weeks and I don't want you to give away your best ideas too soon.